Tech helps OPM beat the clock on security clearances

With a little help from technology, the Office of Personnel Management is on track to cut down the average length of time required to process security clearance applications. OPM Director John Berry testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee this week that he was optimistic the government would reduce the processing time to 60 days by the end of 2009.

"We are ahead of schedule," Berry testified.

According to Berry, OPM got the help it needed from a more centralized computer database of cases and methods of automatically deciding cases without red flags. Jeffrey Zients, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said a new form--used to investigate applicants in national security positions--would be available for public comment by the end of September.

Berry and Zients both said continued emphasis on transparency and consistency would increase reciprocity of clearances, according to an article in Government Executive about the hearing.

Berry vowed that OPM would continue to work on the clearance issue until it was removed from GAO's high risk list of IT problems. "We're not at the goal line yet, but we're within 10 yards," he told the panel.

For more on security clearances moving:
- check out this GovernmentExecutive.com article

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